Include and comment on examples of work produced using the 3D modelling across a range of industries:
games, TV, film, education, web, medicine, mathematics, engineering, architecture, product design etc...
3D in Interactive media and computer games industries:
3D Animation of character movement in games is created by using rigging or motion capture techniques.
Rigging
Skeletal animation is a technique in computer animation in which a character is represented in two parts: a surface representation used to draw the character (called skin or mesh) and a hierarchical set of interconnected bones (called the skeleton or rig) used to animate (pose and keyframe) the mesh. While this technique is often used to animate humans or more generally for organic modelling, it only serves to make the animation process more intuitive and the same technique can be used to control the deformation of any object — a spoon, a building, or a galaxy.
This technique is used in virtually all animation systems where simplified user interfaces allows animators to control often complex algorithms and a huge amount of geometry; most notably through inverse kinematics and other "goal-oriented" techniques. In principle, however, the intention of the technique is never to imitate real anatomy or physical processes, but only to control the deformation of the mesh data.
Motion Capture
Motion capture is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics. In film making and video game development, it refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation. When it includes face and fingers or captures subtle expressions, it is often referred to as performance capture. In many fields, motion capture is sometimes called motion tracking, but in film making and games, motion tracking more usually refers to match moving.
Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_capture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletal_animation
Games:
Monster maze was the first game to use 3D graphics. It was developed from an idea by J.K.Greye and programmed by Malcolm Evans in 1981 for the Sinclair ZX81 platform with the 16 KB memory expansion. The game was initially released by J. K. Greye Software in early 1982 and re-released later the same year by Evans' own startup, New Generation Software. Rendered using low-resolution character block "graphics", it was one of the first 3D games for a home computer.
My first 3D game was Sonic Adventure for the Nintendo Dreamcast:
Transition into 3D:
Early efforts from then-industry leaders Nintendo and Sega saw the introduction of the Super FX and Sega 32X which provided rudimentary 3D capabilities to the 16-bit SNES and Sega Genesis. Super Mario 64 on the N64, Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation, and Tomb Raider on the Saturn, are prime examples of this trend
Super Mario 64:
Crash Bandicoot:
Tomb Raider:
These are just a few examples of the trend in gaming that was beginning to rise. Their 3D environments were widely marketed and they steered the industry's focus away from side-scrolling and rail-style titles, as well as opening doors to more complex games and genres. Games like GoldenEye 007, Ocarina of Time or Virtua Fighter were nothing like shoot-em-ups, RPGs or fighting games before them.
Goldeneye 007:
Virtua Fighter:
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
Current Trends:
These days, most games try to take advantage of the hyper realistic 3D technology available with games like Battlefield 4, Grand Theft Auto V and the soon to be released Metal gear solid V: Ground Zeroes. 3D really brings these games to life and 3D is now seen as a standard element in most games.
Battlefield 4:
GTA V:
MGS V Ground Zeroes:
Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games#Transition_to_3D_and_CDs
3D in TV and Film:
The first 3D animation in a film was included in the 1976 movie called Futureworld, where A 3D animation of a rotating palm and face made of polygons is shown. This was actually the world's first 3D animation rendered in 1972 by Ed Catmull and Fred Parke.
Futureworld - 1976
The first major revolutionary use of 3D imagery in a movie was in Jurassic Park released in 1993, almost all of the dinosaurs were created in using 3D CGI in and shown in the live-action scenes of the movie:
Jurassic Park - 1993
Compositing:
Compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live-action shooting for compositing is variously called "chroma key", "blue screen", "green screen" and other names. Today, most, though not all, compositing is achieved through digital image manipulation. Pre-digital compositing techniques, however, go back as far as the trick films of Georges Méliès in the late 19th century; and some are still in use.
Avatar - 2009
Rise of the planet of the apes - 2011
All compositing involves the replacement of selected parts of an image with other material, usually, but not always, from another image. In the digital method of compositing, software commands designate a narrowly defined color as the part of an image to be replaced. Then every pixel within the designated color range is replaced by the software with a pixel from another image, aligned to appear as part of the original. For example, a TV weather person is recorded in front of a plain blue or green screen, while compositing software replaces only the designated blue or green color with weather maps.
3D Animation on TV:
3D featured rarely on television until 1994 when a Canadian production company called Mainframe Entertainment based in Vancouver released a CGI TV series called ReBoot. The series was credited to be the first ever full-length, completely computer-animated TV series. ReBoot was a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure cartoon series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001.
ReBoot Episode 1:
The setting is in the inner world of a computer system known by its inhabitants as Mainframe. It was deliberately chosen due to technological constraints at the time, as the fictional computer world allowed for blocky looking models and mechanical animation.
There have been many purely animated TV shows since this but the medium has mostly been adopted by children's television.
Butt Ugly Martians:
Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReBoot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compositing
3D in Education:
Technological advances in 3D technology has come to a point where it can be effectively used to create educational tools which enhance traditional methods or by providing virtual classrooms like the one used in Gaia 3D Viewer:
"The Gaia 3D Viewer has been designed with the classroom in mind. Our simple interface requires no training and teachers are able to start teaching lessons in 3D straight away.
We offer a variety of lessons covering all subjects from Biology to History and Geography. Each lesson can be enhanced by the teacher with the capability to quickly and easily embed external assets directly into the lessons provided.
Different Viewer options offer a variety of capabilities allowing maximum flexibility in the classroom. Teachers may use the viewer to individually determine and control the path they wish to travel inside any selected 3D environment.
The Viewer is compatible with a wide range of external assets from PowerPoint presentations, to web links and animation files. Assets can also be embedded directly from sites such as Google Warehouse."
Information:
http://www.gaia3d.co.uk/
3D in Architecture:
Architects are also able to take advantage of 3D modelling software. They can plan buildings and create them in a 3D environment to produce visualisations of the finished product.
Below are a few videos showcasing Buildings created in 3D software:
3D in Medicine:
3D technology has greatly improved the field of medicine. The technology is mostly used in imaging the body but it also can be used for training purposes as shown before with the 3D Gaia Viewer.
CT Imaging
MITO Imaging
3D in Engineering:
3D technology in Engineering can be used for constructing conceptual ideas in a 3D environment and possibly testing them.
3D in Product Design:
3D software in product design is used to recreate base ideas in 3d to get a full visualisation of the product in 3D.
3D in Animation:
This historical video was recently re-discovered after being lost for many years. It was produced in 1972 and is believed to be the world's first computer-generated 3D animation.
It was created by Ed Catmull, a true pioneer of 3D technology, who was a computer scientist at the University of Utah (birthplace of the famous Utah teapot.) If the name sounds familiar, it's because a few years later he was one of the founders of Pixar.
Pixar's Tin Toy:
Tin Toy is a 1988 American computer-animated short film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter. The short film, which runs five minutes, stars Tinny, a tin one-man-band toy, attempting to escape from Billy, a destructive baby. The third short film produced by the company's small animation division, it was a risky investment: due to low revenue produced by Pixar's main product, the eponymous computer to manage animations, the company was under financial constraints.
Lasseter pitched the concept for Tin Toy by storyboard to Pixar owner Steve Jobs, who agreed to finance the short despite the company's struggles, which he kept alive with annual investment. The film was officially a test of the PhotoRealistic RenderMan software, and proved new challenges to the animation team, namely the difficult task of realistically animating Billy. Tin Toy would later gain attention from Disney, who sealed an agreement to create Toy Story, which was primarily inspired by elements from Tin Toy.
The short premiered in a partially completed edit at the SIGGRAPH convention in August 1988 to a standing ovation from scientists and engineers. Tin Toy went on to claim Pixar's first Oscar with the 1988 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, becoming the first CGI film to win an Oscar. With the award, Tin Toy went far to establish computer animation as a legitimate artistic medium outside SIGGRAPH and the animation-festival film circuit. Tin Toy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2003.
Accessing the Technology
Although traditional forms of animation like cell and stop-motion are still popular (and often produced using computer technology), the availability and affordability of high-end 3D software has allowed individuals to access the technology and make creative animations that are of a professional quality. Stories can be told using the freedom 3D space gives the animator. This has led to an explosion of self-published animations and subsequent networking. Freelancers are able to develop short animations for the children's TV market and advertising, competing on an equal footing with larger production companies.
Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Toy
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